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| Bangladesh |
| Voter ID cards ignored for 7yrs |
| 2007-02-25 |
| Successive Election Commissions (ECs) have been ignoring electoral laws regarding voter identity (ID) cards for the last seven years by stalling the process of issuing the cards to the voters. A high-powered inquiry committee, which unearthed the reasons behind the failure of the project for issuing voter ID cards before the parliamentary election in 1996, said the EC's step to stop the process of issuing the cards was not lawful as it is mandatory for the commission to issue them, according to sources. But the EC has been ignoring the legal provision since 2000 and now the reconstituted EC, which initiated the process of bringing massive reforms in electoral laws, has yet to decide whether it will issue the ID cards. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda last Sunday said the EC will take a decision on whether it will issue voter ID cards or a voter list with photographs after considering different options. Officials of the EC Secretariat however said the process of issuing the ID cards was stopped as mandatory use of the cards in elections had been suspended. But the existing laws empower the EC to issue voter ID cards and it can start the process of issuing them anytime, the officials added. Since the introduction of the laws regarding issuance of the ID cards in 1994, the EC continued the process of issuance between 1995 and 2000, but could not complete it. It prepared voter lists twice, in 2000 and 2006, but it did not consider implementation of the electoral laws regarding issuance of voter ID cards, the sources said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 I was wondering the same thing until I hit the name Shamsul Huda, although then I wondered if it was Michigan. |
| Posted by: Jim 2007-02-25 09:29 |
| #1 I wondered if this was Florida or California. Could've been Illinois or New York, too, but it's Bangladesh. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-02-25 07:29 |